An Arizona state legislator next week will introduce a bill that
seeks to ban the sale or manufacture of Pentium III processors in the state
because of complaints that a security feature in the chips could threaten personal privacy.

The chips "can't be sold at all" under the proposed bill,
said State Rep. Steve May, a Republican who will introduce the
bill next week. "We want Intel to wake
up and recognize that it needs to be careful with privacy issues."

The bill would ban chips using a
serial number identification scheme, as well as computers containing
chips with serial numbers. State and government agencies would also be
prevented from buying computers or processors containing the serial numbers.

Manufacturing chips with serial numbers would also be illegal, which could
have a significant impact on Intel operations in Arizona. The company has two
fabrication
plants in the state. Intel CEO Craig Barrett also maintains a home there.

"I have a couple of Intel executives in my district," May said, laughing.

Even if passed, however, the bill could face a number of legal
challenges, including a challenge that it violates the commerce clause of
the U.S. Constitution.

Commercial problems will exist as well. Sun
Microsystems, among other workstation vendors, imprints serial numbers
on its UltraSparc microprocessors to prevent software piracy, several
sources have said. The software is "assigned" to a specific processor at
the factory and can't be used on processors with different serial numbers.
The Sun antipiracy scheme could fall within the ambit of the Arizona ban
and prevent the sale of Sun systems in Arizona.

Workstation users writing to CNET have had a universal negative reaction to
the proposed legislation.

"Please follow up on this [bill] every month or so until it passes or
dies," said one reader.

The security plan, announced last week, has ignited a firestorm of
controversy and pitted Intel against a number of organizations who
say the plan will give Intel, or other companies, the power to track
people on the Web. The Pentium III will come with a serial number that
identifies the specific PC a given person is using. Intel has maintained
that the scheme will guard against fraud and make e-commerce
more secure. To impersonate a user or break into a person's electronic bank
account, for instance, thieves will have to steal the exact computer to
gain admission, the company says.

Privacy advocates have said that the plan will take
away another layer of anonymity on the Web and make it easier to track their
browsing habits. Several groups yesterday proposed a boycott of Intel if the company goes ahead with the plan.

After the boycott was announced, Intel backed down a bit. Under
the original plan, software that would permit the serial number to be accessed
by a
Web server would be turned on, unless turned off by a user. Now, users will
have to deliberately turn on the software.

While May believes the company is making an attempt to lessen any negative
effects of the announcement, he said that there are going to be drastic,
unforeseen
consequences. "It is nice that Intel has come to its senses, but what
happens two years from now?" he asked. "We have to be very careful."

Intel had no comment yesterday, and executives were unfamiliar with the proposed law. "We
will look into it," a spokesman said.

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